Embodiments herein generally relate to electrostatographic printers and copiers or reproduction machines, and more particularly, concerns deriving templates from variable data print files.
The details regarding variable documents are well-known to those ordinarily skilled in the art and a redundant discussion of the same is avoided herein. For example, U.S. patent applications Ser. Nos. 2002/0191219, 2005/0141035, and 2005/0180648, the complete disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, discuss the operation variable documents in detail.
Variable data print files are typically the result of applying a data set to a document template and a set of rules for merging the data with the template. Once the print file is created, the logical document template no longer exists within the print file. If any changes need to be made to this file, they must be done on every page on which the instance of the change needs to be made; otherwise, the editor must go back to the originating application, make the change, and regenerate the print file. This can be very time consuming and prohibitively expensive.